


Better safe than sorry

by Tabata



Series: Leoverse [19]
Category: Glee
Genre: Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 01:23:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13776702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata
Summary: Leo and Blaine are taking the twins to the theme park. It's the perfect occasion to remember how they lost both of them at the zoo six months ago.





	Better safe than sorry

**Author's Note:**

> **WARNING:** This story is a spin-off sequel for Broken Heart Syndrome. This means that, despite not being properly set after BHS (but that's only because BHS is probably never going to have a proper ending and we'll keep talking about these people forever), it depicts things happening way late in the 'verse, and that may be on varying degrees of spoiler.
> 
> prompt: no prompt, rating SAFE

“Is everything ready?” Blaine asks, entering the kitchen.  
The fact that he's not surprised of finding his husband writing their phone numbers on their children's arms with a felt-tip pen says a lot about the weirdness of this family and how much he puts up with it every day.

“I'm almost done,” Leo answers, through the cap of the pen that he's holding with his teeth. Harper has been already scribbled upon – with a very glamorous glittered purple pen nonetheless – and she's looking at the two numbers on her left arm as if they were a new tattoo. Her brother Logan is undergoing the procedure with the same resigned expression of a good house cat whose nails are being cut. He doesn't like it at all, but he doesn't scratch nor bite because he loves his owners too much.

“Is this really necessary?” Blaine asks, carefully.

Leo puts the pen's cap back on. “The theme park is a big place. Better safe than sorry,” he answers, standing up again. He was so curled up a moment before that he seems to grow now, his legs endless. Or maybe it's just because the twins are only three and very small, and he looks like a giant next to them. “Logan, don't touch it. Let it dry.”

Blaine would like to explain to him for the umpteenth time that children don't necessarily get lost every time you take them somewhere, but he knows that trying to reason with Leo when he's being paranoid about something only leads to drama, so he doesn't even try. It's way easier to let him just doodle on the twins.

This pen safety measure was introduced six months ago after a very unfortunate day at the zoo, during which the twins managed to get lost separately. It was for a total of twenty minutes, but it was enough to send Leo in a panic trip that is still somewhat ongoing. Looking back, it was quite funny and Blaine would like to laugh about it, but he can't as long as Leo doesn't find it amusing _at all_.

It was June and he needed to be in New York for a series of meetings with several writers and producers to discuss possible parts and engagements. It's a very tedious task his agent subjects him to two or three times a year; since he's not available to travel back and forth from Westerville every other week end and he categorically refuses to move back to New York – uprooting Leo now would do more damage than uprooting the twins, whom he doesn't want to raise in a big city anyway –, she usually arranges as many appointments and meetings as she can in the same period of time, so he can go over there, stay a few days, see anybody he has to see, and then go back home.

This time he was going to stay a whole week, so he brought the family with him; at least all the family that was willing to come, as Timmy was ready to leave for Italy – that is what he does every summer, he migrates across the pond – and he wouldn't delay his flight just to spend a week in New York with his dads and his siblings.

After landing at LaGuardia, they spent the first day taking possession of the flat Blaine still owns in New York and that he promised to lend to Alex when he will move there to attend fashion school in a few years. The place is very big – Blaine bought it with his first stellar check and he wanted it to be as outrageously lavish as it could be with that kind of money – but it's still a loft, so the twins don't have a room there. Luckily, they don't care about it because, given the circumstances, Blaine always allows them to make a fort with the couch's pillows in the living room and sleep in it whenever they stay there.

The second day Blaine had a few meetings in the evening but he was free the rest of the day, so he and Leo thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Central Park Zoo, especially now that they were so enthralled with animals in general. They got there right at the opening and started with the tropical zone, where Logan was scared to death by bats and snakes and Harper declared she was going to have a pet lemur when she grew up.

After that, they saw the monkeys, the pandas and all the big felines. Leo was totally fascinated by the snow leopard. For a moment Blaine had three kids with him, instead of just two, because his husband was as excited as the twins and he spent the most part of the walk towards the penguins tank growling and pouncing like a big cat.

They arrived just in time for the penguin feeding, which was a great success. At the time Logan's favorite animal was the penguin – now he likes pigs, like his older brother – so when the zoo keeper let him personally give a fish to one of the penguins, he squeaked with happiness. Blaine had never seen him so bold and outgoing. He even gave a fist bump to the zoo keeper and made a little penguin dance. He was hilarious and Leo made him a video and a thousand photos, which later on ended up on his blog, of course.

At that point it was time for the petting zoo. Blaine used to go there with Timmy almost every Sunday when they lived in New York. Looking back, it is probably what triggered Timmy's passion for farms and farm animals. Once Blaine had bought the tickets, his son would make a straight line towards the petting zoo, ignoring all the other cages, and he would stare at cows and pigs for, like, hours.

Timmy was such a contemplative kid, so different from his siblings. The twins are very curious and get obsessed with random things that change every week or so, but they can't stay put just doing something for long periods of time like Timmy used to do. And they are way louder than he was. Maybe it's because there are two of them and he was alone; or maybe it's because he grew up knowing that he shouldn't tip the balance that was always at stake when he was little.

Timmy knew that something was off in his life when he broke up with Leo and he knew that something was off with Leo when they got back together; and he would always conduct himself as to bother them as less as possible. Blaine still feels guilty for that. The twins are free to be more annoying, so to speak. They, too, know that something is not always right with one of their dads and that, when it happens, Blaine has to take him away for a while. But there's always Timmy taking care of them, so they don't feel the need to be _out of their way_.

Anyway, the petting zoo worked his magic on them too, except that instead of stare at goats and pigs, they preferred to run after them, ride the ponies and try to feed the chicken. Blaine is pretty sure that their misadventure – or the _almost tragedy we narrowly avoided_ , as Leo calls it – must have happened around the time Harper insisted to go and see the sheep. She can be very persistent when she wants something, and so after while they all moved to the sheep pen. Blaine really thought Logan was with them. In fact, he's pretty sure he saw him coming along, a little unwilling maybe, because he doesn't like sheep much, but he was right next to him.

They watched the sheep for a while. Harper was demanding their full attention – sometimes she gets bored of having to share it with her brother – and they probably got distracted for a moment. Then Leo turned around to call him, didn't see him and panicked. They looked for him in the immediate surroundings. He couldn't have gone too far, could he? Not on those tiny legs.

But he wasn't anywhere. Leo started to get nervous and Blaine knew he had to keep the situation under control and find the kid before his husband freaked out for good, or he would have two problems instead of only one. After raising a kid alone, Blaine has learned that giving in to panic is completely pointless. If something happens to your kid, you need to actively move to resolve the problem without thinking about the consequences if you fail, because basically you are not allowed to fail.

He gave Harper to Leo and instructed him to hold her in his arms, so he would have had something to do, and then he run ahead of them to go check the penguins tank. Maybe Logan got bored of the sheep and went back to see the animals he liked the most. But once he got there, Logan was nowhere to be found and the zoo keeper said he hadn't seen him. Blaine started to retrace their steps. He was quite sure Logan would not take a different route from the one he already knew. At that point he was starting to worry and Leo was out of himself. In his mind the kid had already been kidnapped, which was a thought Blaine refused to entertain at all.

They looked for him everywhere. His bright red jacket and the panda ears on his beret should have been quite visible but he just wasn't there. By the time they reached the entrance – and the microphone to make an announcement – Leo was crying.

The lady there was very nice and she promptly made the announcement, describing Logan quickly but practically, and saying his dads where waiting for him at the entrance. The two guards there also left to go searching for him. Luckily, about five minutes later, a teen – maybe Timmy's age – showed up, holding Logan by the hand.

Maximilian, that was the name, said that he had found him next to the sea lions area, that Logan had told him that his dads and sister were _where the pigs are_ , and Maximilian had taken him there but found no one. He was taking Logan at the entrance to inform some adult there that the kid was alone when he had heard the announcement. Blaine offered to pay him lunch and, when Maximilian refused, he insisted at least on a coffee, which he accepted, probably only to get these two crazy fathers off his back.

They went to the Dancing Crane Café – the coffee shop inside the zoo – and took a seat at the tables outside. They chatted for a while. Blaine thanked Maximilian again and again, saying to him that not many young men his age would have done that. Maximilian told him that he had four little sisters, one of them Logan's age, so he was used to toddlers wandering about and then getting lost two minutes later. This was probably why Logan trusted him, because he saw someone that reminded him of Timmy and thought it was okay to follow him. Generally speaking, it was not a comforting thought – Blaine had told him and Harper a thousands times that, in case they needed help and dads weren't there, they should go straight to a policeman – but in that case he was just happy this kid had brought his baby boy back.

That is when the second almost-tragedy happened. Probably annoyed by all the fussing around her twin, who ultimately hadn't even disappeared, Harper decided to take a walk alone and go back – as she explained later – to see the bats again because she knew where they were. Blaine was, honestly, very worried at that point because it was preposterous that they kept getting distracted enough to lose both kids. It wasn't okay at all. 

They started to look for her everywhere, but none of them thought about the bats and, by the time she came back to the coffee shop – because she wasn't lost at all – they were already gone. So what did she do? That is what makes it so hilarious to Blaine in the end. She went to the nice lady that had made an announcement for her brother and asked politely if she could call her dads too. And the woman did.

He and Leo run back to the entrance once again, took her and got out of the zoo before someone could call the child services. Blaine was shocked all the way down to the taxi, but then he started to laugh. He had to stop only because Leo was already the picture perfect of the nervous breakdown.

“Okay, they're ready,” Leo announces, bringing Blaine back to the present. The twins wear two identical black coats, and under hats and scarves they look absolutely identical. Blaine make Harper out only because she's wearing a skirt.

“How are the numbers supposed to be useful if they're wearing so much clothes?” Blaine asks, puzzled. Not that he wants his children to go out underdressed for the weather – the last thing he needs is two kids with a cold – but the whole phone numbers issue seems pointless to him.

“Kids?” Leo says. They both pull their sleeves up, showing Blaine their arms proudly.

“Did you train them like puppies?”

Leo smiles. “I'm good, right? I might be good with a real P-U-P-P-Y too.”

Blaine sighs. “I'm not buying you all one,” he says, automatically. He promised himself he won't give in to this request. Not this one. This house has already two little kids leaving chocolate handprints on the couches and a grown up man with episodes that needs undivided attention every once in a while, it doesn't need an untrained puppy leaving poop on the living room carpet.

Leo makes a face. “You're spoiling all the fun,” he mutters, gently pushing the kids out of the house and towards the car.

“As you would say, my love,” Blaine smiles, putting his coat on. “Better safe than sorry.”


End file.
